80 'Private Peaceful' quotations

1. I am so proud of him for that. I have the bravest brother in the world. (p24)
2. There wasn’t a wild flower or a butterfly she couldn’t name. (p26)
3. Charlie & I would make up this story about the Colonel & Grandma Wolf… (p33)
4. Then Charlie would be there beside me, and everything would be all right again. Charlie always made things all right again. (p34)
5. Both of them being older than me, Molly by two years, Charlie by three, they always ran faster than I did. I seem to have spent much of my life watching them racing ahead of me… […] When they got too far ahead I sometimes felt they wanted to be without me. (p43)
6. I remember the day Molly dared Charlie to take off all his clothes, and to my amazement he did. Then she did, and they ran shrieking and bare-bottomed into the water. (p44)
7. “They say we’ll always be together, the three of us, for ever and ever.” (p45)
8. Charlie and I never said our prayers at all any more, not since Sunday school, but we did now.[…] We had our fingers crossed too, just for good measure. (p46)
9. Tonight I want very much to believe there’s a heaven… […] that death is not a full stop, and that we will all see one another again. (p47)
10. Charlie could have left me there. he could have made a run for it and got clean away, but Charlie’s not like that. He never has been. (p49)
11. The plaits were gone, and somehow that changed the whole look of her. She wasn’t a girl any more. She had a different beauty now, a beauty that at once stirred in me a new and deeper love. (p52)
12. Charlie & Molly left school and I was alone. (p53)
13. That was the first time in my life I was ever really jealous of Charlie. (p53)
14. I could see that she and Charlie lived in another world now. (p54)
15. Then one day down by the brook, I turned and saw them walking away from me through the water meadows holding hands. […] I knew at once that this was different. As I watched them I felt a sudden ache in my heart. […] a pang of loss, of deep grief. (p55)
16. I’ve even seen larks over no-man’s land. I always found hope in that. (p61)
17. “Just yes?” I asked, intrigued, puzzled and jealous all at the same time. (p67)
18. All through my last year at school I was their go-between postman. (p68)
19. I never showed her I minded, but I did. (p68)
20. I wanted to kiss her again, then, but I didn’t date. That has always been my trouble. I’ve never dared enough. (p70)
21. I’d put on a spurt and was almost as tall as him by now, but still not as fast, nor as strong. (p70)
22. Things were changing between us. Charlie didn’t treat me like a boy anymore, and I liked that, I liked that a lot. (p70)
23. They’d been meeting in secret and neither of them had told me. (p72)
24. I was so filled with anger and resentment towards him… (p73)
25. We didn’t want to hide it from you, Tommo, honest. But we didn’t want to hurt you either. You love her, don’t you? (p74)
26. It’s our baby, my baby, and Moll’s my girl. (p91)
27. In the next room slept the two people I most loved in all the world who, in finding each other, had deserted me. […] I wanted to hate them. But I couldn’t. (p92)
28. We never argued, not really; perhaps it was because neither of us wanted to hurt the other. We both knew enough hurt had been done already… (p93)
29. I thought […] how Molly would admire me, might even love me, if I joined up… (p97)
30. It hardly seems right, does it, me being here, enjoying life, while they’re over there. (p100)
31. I said I was 16 in a couple of weeks and as tall as he was, that all I had to do was shave and talk deeper and I could easily be taken for 17. (p101)
32. I was going to fight in the war with Charlie. Nothing and no one could stop me now. (p102)
33. I couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from him. we’d lived our lives always together, shared everything, even our love for Molly. Maybe I just want him to have this adventure without me. (p102)
34. I didn’t want any enemy soldier ever setting foot on our soil, on my place. I would do all I could to stop him and to protect the people I loved. (p102-3)
35. “Y’aint a coward, are you?”/ The truth was that I wasn’t sure that I wasn’t, and I needed to find out./I had to prove myself to myself. (p103)
36. Charlie wasn’t frightened of him, like the rest of us were. (p106)
37. Charlie didn’t have to be taught. On the rifle range he proved to be far and way the best shot in th company. When they gave him his red marksman’s badge I was so proud of him. (p108)
38. He was not a big man, but he had eyes of steel that bore into us, and a lashing snarl in his voice that terrified us. (p114)
39. Charlie just would not give Hanley the satisfaction of playing his game… (p115)
40. Charlie was swiping at the wasp, and the wasp wasn’t just stinging him, he was stinging all of us. Charlie was beginning to be thought of as a bit of […] a Jonah. (p115)
41. They all liked and respected Charlie too much (p115)
42. “You can’t fight him.”/”But that doesn’t mean I have to lie down and let him walk all over me.” (p116)
43. That was typical Charlie. I was trying to warn him, and he just turned the whole thing around and ended up warning me. (p116)
44. If ever the teasing got a bit out of hand, Charlie would give them a look and it would stop. He never nannied me, but everyone knew he’d stick by me no matter what. (p116)
45. Charlie had broken ranks and run at Hanley, screaming at him. he hadn’t actually hit him, but he had stood there nose to nose with Hanley telling him exactly what he thought of him. they said it was magnificent, that everyone cheered when he’d finished. But Charlie had been marched off to the guardroom under arrest. (p117-8)
46. Insubordination in time of war could be seen as mutiny and that mutiny was punishable by death, by the firing squad. (p118)
47. I tried to smile back, but no smile came, only tears. (p118)
48. “What a friend I have in Charlie.” (p118)
49. I should be able by now to fight off sleep. I’ve done it often enough (p118)
50. After this night is over, then you can drift away, they you can sleep for ever, for nothing will ever matter again. (p119)
51. It’s difficult to believe he and Sgt Horrible Hanley are in the same army, on the ame side. (p120)
52. I can see his smile in the dark and my fear is gone at once. (p125)
53. If he has fear he never shows it, and if that is courage then we’re beginning to catch it. (p127)
54. It’s Charlie who keeps us together. […] He;s become like a big brother to everyone. (p127)
55. I’m tensed for danger. I’m ready for it, but not frightened. (p129)
56. I’m praying and thinking of Molly. If I’m going to die I want her to be my last thought. (p131)
57. Charlie carrying Wilkie on his back the whole way… (p133)
58. He knows my thoughts. He sees my terror. (p139)
59. I stay and I do not run, only because of Charlie. (p139)
60. I feel a surge of triumph welling inside me, not because we have won, but because I have stood with the others. I have not run. (p140)
61. I could believe only in the hell I was living in, a hell on earth, and it was man-made, not God-made. (p143)
62. All I could think was that we’d come to this war together […] and now he was deserting me. (p146)
63. I always imagined I’d be lost without Charlie at my side… (p151)
64. All this gave me less time to dwell on my own fears. I was far too busy pretending I was someone else. (p151)
65. Even my courage to be a coward had evaporated. (p161)
66. Molly […] had named little Tommo after me. I couldn't shame her. I couldn’t shame him. (p161)
67. I felt an ache inside me… (p163)
68. I had my guardian back, my brother and my best friend. (p164)
69. I know I am dying my own death, and I welcome it. (p167)
70. Private Peaceful will die, will be shot for cowardice in the face of the enemy at 6o’clock on the morning of 25th June 1916. (p168)
71. “You’ll tell them how it really was, won’t you, Tommo? It’s all I care about now.” (p177)
72. “I was the Charlie. […] A right Charlie.” (p178)
73. All foot wounds are suspicious (p178)
74. “I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, Tommo, but none of them ever upset me, except that one.” (p179)
75. “…give it to Little Tommo, so he’ll have something from me.” (p180)
76. “You’re not worthless, Charlie.” (p181)
77. With that volley a part of me has died with him. (p185)
78. All over the camp I see them standing to attention outside their tents. (p185)
79. Six of us who were in the dugout that day stand vigil over his grave until sundown. (p185)
80. I must survive. I have promises to keep. (p185)